Issue - meetings

HIF

Meeting: 25/03/2019 - Cabinet (Item 68)

68 Wirral Waters: Housing Infrastructure Fund pdf icon PDF 134 KB

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Minutes:

Councillor George Davies introduced a report and informed that in November 2017, Wirral Council had submitted a bid to Central Government for £6,004,160 from the Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF) programme, to support housing development in Wirral Waters. Wirral Waters was the only scheme within Wirral that met the HIF programme criteria. Cabinet Members noted that the process was highly competitive as the programme was heavily oversubscribed but in February 2018 Central Government had announced, in principle, that the bid from the Council had been successful.

 

Councillor George Davies reported that he was delighted that the bid had been successful and that the funding would support the delivery of over 1,000 properties at Northbank, Wirral Waters which would include the Urban Splash development, the Belong Urban Village and the Wirral Waters One project. Together with the Wirral Waters One development, this scheme represented a step change to the residential offer in the East Wirral housing market. It would fund a range of infrastructure works which would unlock further residential and commercial development in Wirral Waters and add to the creation of a new community within the dockland area.

 

Following a process of due diligence by Homes England the scheme had been formally approved in February 2019. The report set out the detail of the HIF funded programme and sought authority to accept the grant from Homes England and to allocate the funding to Peel Holdings to deliver the scheme.

 

The Cabinet noted that the Wirral Plan had a pledge to deliver good quality housing that met the needs of residents, through creating 3,500 new homes and improving a further 3,500 homes by 2020. The three residential developments at Wirral Waters would together result in some 1,106 residential units being delivered and, as they would be constructed on brownfield vacant land, it would help to reduce the pressures on development in Wirral’s Green Belt.

 

The Cabinet also noted that the proposals contained in the report contributed to a number of the pledges within the Wirral Plan, including:

 

·   Increase inward investment

·  Greater job opportunities in Wirral

·  Good quality housing that meets the needs of residents

 

The appendix to the report was not for publication by virtue of paragraph 3 (Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person) under Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 as amended (Minute No. 76 refers).

 

Cabinet Members noted that other options considered had been to do nothing but that would not have secured grant funding for the development of Wirral Waters.

 

Cabinet Members also noted that planning permission for the East Float had been approved in May 2012. A number of options for Northbank had been developed looking at place making, scale, height, density, unit types, parking, informed by market testing and viability. Funding support was required given the viability issues associated with the site for these to progress.

 

Initial options had included higher rise perimeter blocks with towers and podium parking. This had proved unviable due to the high costs  ...  view the full minutes text for item 68